@ Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, on Fri 26 Feb 2016; and
@ Birnam Arts, Perthshire, on Mon 7 Mar 2016; and
@ Byre Theatre, St Andrews, on Sat 12 Mar 2016

A huge debt is owed to HP Lovecraft, the pioneer of horror fiction in the 1920s and 30s, who gained cult status only after his death at the tragically young age of 47. So ahead of his time was Lovecraft that he was forced to sell his fiction to pulp magazines like Astounding Stories. Without Lovecraft there may have been no John Carpenter, Stephen King, Guillermo Del Toro or Ray Bradbury to name a few.

At the Mountains of Madness – a touring production from the Icarus Theatre Collective – sees Professor William Dyer, the nominal head of an Antarctic expedition during which events take a disquieting turn. The story recalls the classic 1982 John Carpenter horror movie The Thing in which something indescribable happens to a bunch of men in an Antarctic outpost.

In this one-man show Dyer is played brilliantly by Tim Hardy (other characters are in voiceover relayed via crackly radio transmitter). When Lovecraft was writing, the Antarctic was largely undiscovered and was as alien as another planet. His descriptions of this otherworldly landscape, all purple light from the low sun and eerie whistling of Antarctic winds, caught the imagination of readers, especially when he overlaid dark, devilish imaginings of his own.

For the expedition, things go well until the explorers discover a geology unknown to man, odd star symbols and a strange ice city, not to mention dark deeds by a mysterious force. Although it’s a one-man show (Hardy adapted the book for the stage with its director Max Lewendel) and we have to visualise what the weird city looks like, it’s all superbly atmospheric. Expect goosebumps. Some thrilling music and lighting (Theo Holloway and Declan Randall respectively) help make this a little gem of a production (you can still catch it in Perthshire and St Andrews) that will have you rushing out to discover Lovecraft’s books for yourself.